St. Mark Church unveils street murals in new arts and media focus
The completion of a vibrant, multi-sided mural that tells the history of St. Mark Church in Venice is the latest project aimed at augmenting an arts-and-media evangelization movement at the parish.
Father Albert van der Woerd, St. Mark’s pastor, explained in a bulletin posting that the parish hall mural created by artist Presa Hall, passed by more than 100,000 people each day on the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Garfield Avenue, purposefully portrays a sixth-century Greek mosaic of St. Mark on the most visible east side of the building.
“A lot of history is involved in the choice of the name Saint Mark for our parish,” wrote van der Woerd, referring to the church established in 1923 to help fleeing immigrants escaping persecution in Mexico. “Think of Abbott Kinney, who wanted to create a little Venice for his wife in the swamp on the Westside. With the Saint Mark Basilica in Venice, Italy, holding the relics of this evangelist, what other name could have been chosen than Saint Mark?”